{"id":99436,"date":"2025-04-22T17:23:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T21:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=99436"},"modified":"2025-04-22T17:23:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T21:23:52","slug":"new-york-mets-handle-second-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/22\/new-york-mets-handle-second-base\/","title":{"rendered":"How Will The New York Mets Handle Second Base?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Mets<\/a> second base situation is about to get interesting. There will likely be three players on the roster who could start at second base. This assumes that Jeff McNeil<\/a> and Francisco Alvarez<\/a> return, demoting Jose Azocar<\/a> and Hayden Senger.<\/a><\/p>\n

That would leave the trio of McNeil, Luisangel Acu\u00f1a<\/a>, and Brett Baty<\/a> eligible to start at second base. Of course, all three of these players have experience at other positions as well, so let’s examine the options that the Mets have.<\/p>\n

McNeil To The Outfield \/ Acu\u00f1a Stays At Second Base<\/h3>\n

It’s evident that Jeff McNeil is more than adequate in the outfield. He gives you versatility in left and right field, and he even has some experience in center field over his rehab assignment. While the Mets already have solid outfield depth in Jesse Winker<\/a> and Starling Marte<\/a>, you can never have enough depth, especially with Marte’s age and the Mets desire to keep him in the DH spot. This leaves second base open to the young guys, which is what the Mets wanted all along, as evidenced by not retaining Jose Iglesias<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As of now, Luisangel Acu\u00f1a has earned the job, batting .353 in his last seven games, and giving speed on the base paths with two stolen bases during that time frame as well. He’s also shown flashes of brilliant defense, and the combo of Francisco Lindor<\/a> and Acu\u00f1a is ideal for double plays. Brett Baty could still get some playing time at second as well, while also serving as a backup for Mark Vientos<\/a> as he deals with his sore groin.<\/p>\n

Acu\u00f1a To The Outfield \/ McNeil Returns To Second Base<\/h3>\n

Luisangel Acu\u00f1a has spent most of his career playing in the middle infield, but he also has some reps in center field. The 23-year-old spent 31 games in center field last season with Triple-A Syracuse, and with Jose Siri<\/a> expected to miss 8-10 weeks with a left tibia fracture, this flexibility in center field could be very valuable. Granted, you don’t want to move a young player around the field too much, especially right after they start hitting well, but Acu\u00f1a’s speed works well in center field and gives Carlos Mendoza<\/a> more options in general.<\/p>\n

The other side of this is that it gives Jeff McNeil another chance to prove that his 2024 season was a fluke, and in this scenario, he would get the most playing time.\u00a0 This also leaves the door open for Brett Baty, as the 33-year-old McNeil would require more off days than Acu\u00f1a would. If the Mets desire a more open approach, with all three players getting as much playing time as possible, this option could be the way to go.<\/p>\n

Wait And See<\/h3>\n

With McNeil and Alvarez expected to return to the big leagues by this weekend, it leaves plenty of time for both Acu\u00f1a and Baty to make David Stearns’s decision even more difficult.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re still a few days away. The good thing is if we are having these discussions, it\u2019s a good thing,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “That means Baty continues to play well, that means Acu\u00f1a continues to play well, and they\u2019re making that decision very tough on us. That\u2019s what we want.”<\/p>\n

As for Acu\u00f1a or McNeil being moved to center field, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns kept all options open on Monday.<\/p>\n

“Jeff could be a part of it. Brandon [Nimmo] could be a part of it. Luis could be a part of it. I think it\u2019s who\u2019s playing well, what pitchers we’re facing, and how we want to structure the lineup on any particular day. But we feel confident we have enough people to play there, to cover that position and cover it well.”<\/p>\n

Regardless of what they choose to do, this is the first time in a long while that the New York Mets second base situation has this many viable options. And that is a good problem for the Metropolitans to have.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Mets second base situation is about to get interesting. There will likely be three players on the roster who could start at second base. This assumes that Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez return, demoting Jose Azocar and Hayden Senger. That would leave the trio of McNeil, Luisangel Acu\u00f1a, and Brett Baty eligible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3729,"featured_media":99544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99436"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99545,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99436\/revisions\/99545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}